


A little bit of hope

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Amamota Week 2020 [6]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Amamota Week, Amamota Week 2020, But he has a little bit at the end, Conversations, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Nonbinary Amami Rantaro, Sappy, Shuichi is sleeping for most of this, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, angst if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27424843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: “I might take a break and stretch, though,” Rantaro admits, after a moment, marking their page. They put the book to the side, and then yawn, dropping into Kaito’s lap and stretching their arms over their head. They look like a cat or something. Kaito is chuckling, reaching down to card his fingers through their hair. Rantaro’s eyes flutter closed, and he hums, leaning into the touch as Kaito combs out the tangles in their curls. They’re really too pretty like this. The light catches on their septum ring, and Kaito looks at it thoughtfully as he strokes their hair.“You’ve got a lot of rings,” he remarks, idly, softly, reaching down and thumbing Rantaro’s cupid’s bow. Their eyes open, and a lazy smirk crawls across their expression, their brows raising slightly.“Almost seven years of dating me, and you’re just now noticing this?” Rantaro grins, cocking their head to the side.---Kaito and Rantaro let themselves hope, just a little bit.---Amamota week day six: Rings/Jacket
Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Momota Kaito, Amami Rantaro/Momota Kaito/Saihara Shuichi
Series: Amamota Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994860
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	A little bit of hope

**Author's Note:**

> written for amamota week day six! the prompt was rings/jacket

The room is quiet, aside from the sound of Rantaro flipping pages in their book every so often, shifting in their spot and getting more comfortable. Kaito moves whenever they do, to accommodate their weight against his shoulder, but admittedly it’s hard to be moving around with Shuichi sleeping against his other shoulder, so, sorry, Rantaro. Either way there’s not going to be gay rights with this situation. Rantaro’s eyes are a bit droopy, though, so they must be comfortable enough. Kaito’s been going back and forth between watching them read and watching Shuichi sleep, content in this moment with his partners, listening to the faint, faint sound of birdsong through the cracked window.

It’s been too long since they’ve gotten a day off like this. Shuichi is such a workaholic, especially when he starts on a new case; it’s like he has something to prove, ever since leaving the police department, he has to do everything quickly and perfectly, or he’s nothing. Kaito has walked in on him conked out at his desk more than once, his arms curled around his head, his reading glasses slightly crooked on his nose and his laptop open in front of him. The only reason they’re even taking a break now is because Shuichi just finished his last missing persons case, and he was feeling proud enough of himself to get dragged into a day off.

As for Rantaro, well, that one should be fairly obvious. They’re always out of town on some trip somewhere, always running off if they get even the slightest indication that one of their sisters might be there. Not that Kaito can blame them. Rantaro has been searching for almost ten years now and they’ve only found a few of their sisters-- most of them with Shuichi’s help-- in that time. Kaito would like to be able to go out with them, but they’re off to space in a few months and they’ve been so busy… it’s just hard to coordinate a several days trip when Kaito is working on conditioning his body and training for everything he’ll have to do up there.

Rantaro is here now, though, and Shuichi is fast asleep. Kaito’s always in bed at ten at the latest, so he doesn’t really know how late Shuichi actually stayed up, but it was late enough that the lamp was still on, and Shuichi’s book was still resting on his face, when Kaito opened his eyes this morning. It’s… a sweet way to wake up. The passion that Shuichi has for reading is so genuine and it makes Kaito feel so warm, not least of all because he isn’t obsessive about it like he is with his detective work. There are definitely worse ways to fall asleep.

But still. This man needs a better sleep schedule. Kaito does a little shuffle this time, squeezing Shuichi and pressing a kiss to his forehead. He smells like coffee and cinnamon and old books. It’s a comforting smell. The first time Kaito ever broke down in front of Shuichi, back in high school, he smelled almost exactly the same. It was something that Kaito used to ground himself.

…Heh. Embarrassing thinking about that now. Shuichi snuffles a little in his sleep, nuzzling Kaito’s shoulder, and Kaito’s heart melts. He gives Shuichi another kiss for his trouble and then turns to look at Rantaro, whose eyes have drooped further since he last looked.

“Is it boring you?” he asks, in a whisper. Shuichi is a pretty heavy sleeper, but Kaito still wants to be respectful. Shuichi has reported that sometimes when he and Rantaro talk while he’s sleeping, their words will enter into his dreams. It’s… pretty funny to think about. But Kaito won’t harass him right now, when he’s been working so hard recently. “You look sleepy?”

“Nothing to do with the book,” mumbles Rantaro, shifting and adjusting their weight. They turn their head, closing their eyes a moment and kissing Kaito’s clothed shoulder, then open their eyes again. The sunlight that streams through the window turns their eyes a pretty golden green, like honey tinted foliage. Rantaro is so pretty, with long eyelashes framing striking eyes and a spattering of freckles across the bridge of their nose. What really attracts Kaito to them, though, is the kind, loving glow in their eyes, and he leans over to kiss them right on the freckles right as the thought surfaces.

A lazy smile curls Rantaro’s lip as they turn back, thumbing the page of their novel.

“You’re just warm,” they continue, yawning quietly. “I’m sleepy, but I’m not tired. And this is a good book.”

They don’t get a lot of reading in, so Kaito can understand why they’re committed to it. Rantaro always has so much nervous energy, despite acting calm all the time. Back in high school, it was like they were incapable of sitting still in class, their legs always bouncing, hands searching for some kind of fidget. Rantaro likes books, to Kaito’s understanding; sometimes on nights when Rantaro and Kaito are home before Shuichi, they’ll curl up by the fireplace and Kaito will read aloud to them, and they’ll take breaks during chapters to talk about the story so far. But they can rarely sit still long enough to keep at them.

It’s nice to see Rantaro so relaxed. Kaito can’t expect this of them all the time, not when eight of their sisters are still lost, scattered across the world in various places that Rantaro hasn’t figured out yet how to reach, but it’s nice when it happens. They deserve so much better than life has served them with. Kaito kisses them again, on the top of their head, but it’s for a different reason this time.

Carefully, Kaito pushes the thoughts to the side, shelves them for later. “So I’ve heard,” he says, with regards to the whole warm deal. It makes him happy to be told that he’s warm, but god do his partners say it a lot. If Kaito was asked what his most commonly received compliment was, that would be it right there. Not that that’s really saying much when it comes from Shuichi, whose hands perpetually feel like he was standing outside all night in the rain, but Rantaro’s a pretty toasty person themself (so Kaito has heard; he has pretty bad temperature sensitivity, generally speaking) and they so a lot too. “Y’wanna move so you can focus more on reading?”

Rantaro gives him a dirty look. “If you deprive me of your warmth, Momota Kaito, I’m waking Shuichi up right now so he can yell at you for me.”

The image of Shuichi yelling at him in Rantaro’s stead makes Kaito laugh, especially paired with the indignant look on their face. It’s not that Shuichi has never raised his voice before. He gets angry fairly often, actually-- it’s not like Kaito and Rantaro have to walk on egg shells, they know Shuichi would never hurt them and he’s rather gentle in disposition, even when he’s beyond pissed, but he has his trigger subjects.

It’s good he feels comfortable enough to get angry at them without immediately begging for forgiveness now. It used to be that Shuichi was terrified he would say the wrong thing, and then they’d leave. Kaito’s worked really hard to pull him out of that. ‘Course, it would’ve been easier if he and Rantaro hadn’t been struggling with similar problems, but…

They’re here now. That’s what matters.

“I might take a break and stretch, though,” Rantaro admits, after a moment, marking their page. They put the book to the side, and then yawn, dropping into Kaito’s lap and stretching their arms over their head. They look like a cat or something. Kaito is chuckling, reaching down to card his fingers through their hair. Rantaro’s eyes flutter closed, and he hums, leaning into the touch as Kaito combs out the tangles in their curls. They’re really too pretty like this. The light catches on their septum ring, and Kaito looks at it thoughtfully as he strokes their hair.

“You’ve got a lot of rings,” he remarks, idly, softly, reaching down and thumbing Rantaro’s cupid’s bow. Their eyes open, and a lazy smirk crawls across their expression, their brows raising slightly.

“Almost seven years of dating me, and you’re just now noticing this?” Rantaro grins, cocking their head to the side. “You were even there when I got this,” they add, lifting a hand to poke the aforementioned nose ring, pulling Kaito’s hand away from their lips and intertwining their fingers. They kiss his knuckles before lowering his hand.

“Look,” Kaito says, his face warming, without a proper explanation planned. Rantaro can probably tell, because they giggle, shuffling in Kaito’s lap so they’re facing him better, their brows raised still. Kaito is seriously torn between just grabbing them up and kissing them and actually having a conversation about this. He opts for the latter for now, but only because if he did any impulsive grabs and kisses, it would probably wake Shuichi. Rantaro is safe for now but not forever. “I just! You look really pretty in this lighting, and I was thinking about the septum piercing. That’s all, okay?”

Rantaro giggles. “I figured that was what it was,” they admit. “I just wanted to give you shit for it.” They squeeze Kaito’s hand. “Yeah, I do have a lot of rings. Probably an unreasonable amount of rings, actually.” It’s true. There’s a ring in their eyebrow, and five in their right ear, and three on their fingers. Only on their right hand, though. Kaito’s hoping that the first ring they get on their left hand is… well, put there by him.

He’s working on it, okay. Engagement rings are expensive. He’s  _ going  _ to marry his partners. It’s gonna happen.

“I just think they’re neat,” Rantaro continues, oblivious to Kaito’s train of thought. They lift their right hand, the one holding Kaito’s, eyes sparking slightly as they watch their rings catch the sunlight. “It was Kikuko’s favourite, too, specifically the plain silver bands like the ones I favour. She liked them because they were, y’know,” they gesture thoughtlessly with their left hand, “uniform. Standard, all around. That was really her thing.” Their expression shifts, and they add softly, “I’ll give her one of my rings, if I ever find her.”

Mmmmm. Kaito sobers at that, bringing their fingers to his lips. It’s really not fair, the situation with Kikuko. She’s been gone the longest out of all of Rantaro’s sisters. Nobody knows what happened to her, whether she fell off the trail and got abducted. Rantaro isn’t going to stop until he’s found her, all of her, regardless of whether she’s alive or not, but if she got buried somehow, out in the forest in Puerto Princesa, or eaten by an animal, or if her body was taken and sold post-mortem… Rantaro is just going to be searching forever and ever.

They’re ready for this outcome. They’ve said so to Kaito and Shuichi before, that they’ll search until the day they die if they have to. But one of the only ways Kaito managed to get through high school was by thinking about a day when all their troubles would be over, when Kaito would have gone to space and come back and when Shuichi would’ve grown confident in himself and when Rantaro would’ve found all their sisters. If that’s never going to happen…

Kaito can’t decide if that would get him worse, or Rantaro. At least Rantaro seems to have come to terms with it.

…Or maybe that’s worse.

Back in high school, Kaito would’ve told Rantaro, for certain, that they’re going to find her. That they’re  _ going  _ to bring her home, no matter what. That Kikuko will be okay. She’ll be brought back home.

But Kaito isn’t the Luminary of the Stars, he’s not some hero who can predict the future or make things happen just by believing in the people he loves. If he had to believe in anybody in the world with his entire heart, he would choose Rantaro and Shuichi, because they’re remarkable and he’s in love with them and he’d take a bullet for them both, but just because they’re good doesn’t mean good things will happen. Life is fickle. Life is cruel. And sometimes things don’t work out.

What Kaito can do, though, is gently shift Shuichi so that he’s leaning against the bed, and then lean down to kiss Rantaro on the lips, sideways, almost like that upside-down kiss that MJ and Peter share in Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman. Not quite, but almost. Kaito is thinking about it, okay.

And then he pulls back, and he rubs their noses together, and he gives Rantaro a soft, soft look, and he says, “She’ll get that ring someday, Taro.”

Even if they have to bury her with it. She’ll get it. Kaito isn’t the one looking, the only stakes he has in this revolve around one of the loves of his life. He can afford to have a little bit of false hope. A little bit of naivety. Someone has to do it. And Kaito is happy to.

Rantaro hums, quietly, looking at Kaito for a moment, and then smiling. They trace the side of Kaito’s face with their hand, and then they take his chin and kiss him again, and when they pull back, their eyes are closed.

“I think so, too,” they murmur. It’s the first little bit of hope they’ve ever shown about their travels. Barely anything, really. But it’s so much more than what Rantaro used to think they were capable of, Kaito can’t help but laugh a little, his heart squeezing with affection.

Shuichi grumbles a little behind them. “Sleeping sitting up and lying backwards aren’t compatible,” he huffs, and when Kaito looks back, his eyes are still closed, his nose wrinkled in that adorable, indignant way it does. “Would my head rest like to return to his position?”

Another laugh escapes Kaito. “Right away, sir,” he says, grinning, leaning back to accommodate Shuichi. Shuichi lets out a pleased, tired sigh, snuggling back in.

“Hey, Shu, Shu,” Rantaro reaches up, from where they still lie in Kaito’s lap, to poke Shuichi’s nose. It wrinkles, and then he sneezes, and  _ then  _ his eyes open, and he gives Rantaro a huffy look. “You’re cute. I love you.”

Whining a little, Shuichi says, “Good  _ night,  _ Rantaro,” but as Rantaro and Kaito both laugh, he adds, “I love you too.”

Kaito catches Rantaro’s eye again once Shuichi has settled back in, and he whispers, “I love you,” because he wants to, and because he  _ does,  _ so purely and so strongly, more strongly than he’s felt almost anything in the world. Rantaro’s eyes sparkle a little, and they shifts onto their back, peering over at Kaito with a smile on their face.

“I love you,” they echo, reaching out and intertwining their fingers again. Kaito drags their hand up to his lips, again, and kisses their rings this time, closing his eyes and imagining that he could send this love he feels so strongly to Rantaro’s sister, wherever she is. She’s not alone. Or she won’t be, soon.

…Yeah. A little bit of hope is okay.

**Author's Note:**

> ohhh shuichi content from tox?? that hasn't happened in a while


End file.
